The EU Commission formalises its commitment to make public the travel expenses

The European Commission has formalised its commitment, first pledged in September 2017, to make public the travel expenses of the Commissioners: on 31 January 2018 the new Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission was published and it confirms that mission expenses will be published every two months. This commitment in the new Code of Conduct comes exactly one year since, on 27 January 2017, Access Info Europe launched a public campaign calling for publication of the Commissioners’ travel expenses. The campaign attracted media coverage, over both the lack of transparency and – based on some of the data obtained – issues such as the use of private air taxis by some Commissioners. Access Info today expressed cautious welcome the new Code of Conduct, which states that expenses will be published each two months, and the accompanying press release that promises publication as of February 2018, noting that that the precise level of detail in the future publication of the travel costs is still not known. “This is an important step for the public’s right to know, but the devil is in the detail,” commented Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info. “The provision refers to publication of […]